The famed comic character Tintin never had an official adventure in Vancouver, but one fan imagined what such an adventure might look like.
Graphic designer Danny Jose recently shared his artwork for an unofficial Tintin in Vancouver book cover, though such a story doesn't exist.
It features the famed Belgian reporter, his friend Captain Haddock, and his dog Snowy fleeing a group of Mounties dressed in their red serge onto a dock at Granville Island. Two seals watch from the water, and detectives Thompson and Thomson glance over from a table.
Jose, who currently lives in Bangalore, India, created the cover based on a trip he made to Vancouver while working in Calgary as an illustrator for finance technology company Helcim.
"I visited Vancouver in 2024 for a short trip," he tells V.I.A. in an email. "Although I spent just five days in the city, I fell in love with it. I would live there permanently if I could afford it."
Granville Island was a particular highlight for him, so he featured the popular tourist destination on his cover. He turned to fellow Tintin fans on Reddit for help with some details.
"I placed the scene in Granville Island because it seemed like the perfect place for a commotion to break out and a chase sequence to ensue," he explains. "In retrospect, I think I could have done a better job at capturing the buzz of Granville Island by adding more crowds."
An influence since childhood
Prior to the Vancouver cover, Jose created another fake cover for Tintin in Calgary. He's also done other Tintin designs for fun, apart from his regular job designing illustrations and animations for tech products.
Jose has been a fan of Tintin since he was a kid He says when his mother brought library books home, he'd gravitate to the illustrated ones.
"One summer, she brought home a series called The Adventures of Tintin," he recalls. "I might have been 10 or 11 at the time, and I had never heard of or seen any of these characters before. One page in and I was hooked."
"Tintin was my window into international art, culture, and people from around the world. I fell in love with its universe, the plots, and especially the characters."
"I would first read them, and then go through them a second time just taking in the art, and then draw the characters."
To this day, the designs of Georges Prosper Remi (aka Herge) influence Jose's work at Helcim.
And he still draws his own versions of Tintin art.
